Jamie Lee, Demarest Middle School
Bergen County
Long-eared owl. Bergen County. Jamie Lee
Imagine flying in the air with silent wing beats, while your ear tufts are flattened back on your head. You are hunting for a muskrat and you swiftly land the tips of your claws and feet and you grab it! What a dinner! Sometimes I wish that more of us existed. I am a long eared owl, and scientists call mean Asio otis. One day, I was going home and then all I saw was a highway pummeling through the lovely dense coniferous forest my family and I lived in. Well, used to. I didn't bother feeling sorry for myself. I just fly west and see an abandoned nest waiting to be used. So I use it. I sat down in it and started to think, "If humans would only understand how sad it is for us to become extinct. Sometimes I think that humans think that we don't have any feelings, but we do. I do not think that humans would even like it if their house was cut down by animals! Humans are so stuck-up for their own property!"
Right at that moment, my friend owl flew past me, circled overhead, and landed in the branch next to me. "Hi. I have to tell you something. Be careful!" Right at that moment, the tree in front of us falls down in a crack, revealing a bulldozer and a person holding a rifle. Then I realize the barrel was pointing at us. We shriek and we start flying off and the person shoots, fortunately missing us. "Phew!" we said after we flew about 10 miles and then stopped to rest.
Tomorrow, we open our eyes to see more owls in front of us, staring. I say "Hey!" and then they start saying things like "hi!" and then my friend starts to talk about our story of the highway, the rifle-holding person, and her house being burned down. That causes everyone start to talk about their story. I yell and then they all turn to me. I asked, "Why do they do this to us?" I didn't need to explain who they were. Someone suggested that it was because they didn't like to see birds flying because they were jealous that they can't fly. But everyone assumed that it was too foolish to believe so we thought of another reason. The bird who thought of it was me. I said "If humans kill us, we can't do anything about it. All we could do is think about why we need to be alive. We need protection because it is considered good luck to see an owl in flight. We also eat the small mammals and reptiles that scare humans. Another thing we could do is think about what we want humans to know about us, and we want them to know that we don't want to become an extinct species. Also, did you know that there are conservation places that humans run to save endangered animals like us?"
Written by: Jamie Lee
Demarest Middle School, Demarest
Teacher: Mrs.Cherna